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Optical spectroscopic observations of gamma-ray blazar candidates. VII. Follow-up campaign in the southern hemisphere

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Abstract

Searching for low energy counterparts of \(\gamma \)-rays sources is one of the major challenges in modern \(\gamma \)-ray astronomy. In the third Fermi source catalog about 30% of detected sources are unidentified/unassociated Gamma-ray Sources (UGSs). We recently started an optical spectroscopic follow up campaign to confirm the blazar-like nature of candidates counterparts of UGSs. Here we report the spectra of 61 targets collected with the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) between 2014 and the 2017. Our sample includes 33 potential counterparts of UGSs, selected on the basis of WISE colors, and 27 blazar candidates of uncertain type associated with gamma-ray sources of the last release of the Fermi catalog. We confirm the BZB nature of 20 sources lying within the positional uncertainty region of the UGSs. All the observed BCUs show blazar-like spectra, classified as 2 BZQs and 25 BZBs, for which we obtained 6 redshift estimates. Within the BCUs observations we report the redshift estimate for the BZB associated with, 3FGL J1106.4-3643 that is the second most distant BL Lac known to date, at \(z \geq 1.084\).

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Notes

  1. http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/topcat/.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Dr. S. Points for the support while carrying out the SOAR observations. Work by C.C. Cheung at NRL is supported in part by NASA DPR S-15633-Y. H.A. Smith acknowledges partial support from NASA grants NNX14AJ61G and NNX15AE56G, J. Strader acknowledges support from NASA grant NNX15AU83G and a Packard Fellowship. E. Jiménez-Bailón acknowledges support from Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica (IN109217). This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Based on observations obtained at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, which is a joint project of the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, e Inovação (MCTI) da República Federativa do Brasil, the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU). TOPCATFootnote 1 (Taylor 2005) for the preparation and manipulation of the tabular data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Torino, via Pietro Giuria 1, 10125, Torino, Italy

    H. A. Peña-Herazo, E. J. Marchesini, N. Álvarez Crespo & F. Massaro

  2. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino, 10125, Torino, Italy

    H. A. Peña-Herazo, E. J. Marchesini, N. Álvarez Crespo & F. Massaro

  3. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, Apartado Postal 51-216, 72840, Puebla, Mexico

    H. A. Peña-Herazo & V. Chavushyan

  4. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina

    E. J. Marchesini

  5. Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata, CONICET-UNLP, CCT La Plata, Paseo del Bosque S/N, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina

    E. J. Marchesini

  6. INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Bologna, via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy

    E. J. Marchesini & N. Masetti

  7. Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146, Roma, Italy

    F. Ricci & F. La Franca

  8. INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Emilio Bianchi 46, 23807, Merate, Italy

    M. Landoni

  9. Center for Data Intensive and Time Domain Astronomy, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    J. Strader & L. Chomiuk

  10. Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, 20375-5352, USA

    C. C. Cheung

  11. Departamento de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Andrés Bello, Fernández Concha 700, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile

    N. Masetti

  12. Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apdo. Postal 877, Ensenada, 22800, Baja California, Mexico

    E. Jiménez-Bailón

  13. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    A. Paggi, D. Milisavljevic & H. A. Smith

  14. Department of Physical Sciences, University of Napoli Federico II, via Cinthia 9, 80126, Napoli, Italy

    R. D’Abrusco

  15. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Perugia, 06123, Perugia, Italy

    G. Tosti

Authors
  1. H. A. Peña-Herazo
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  2. E. J. Marchesini
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  3. N. Álvarez Crespo
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  4. F. Ricci
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  5. F. Massaro
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  6. V. Chavushyan
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  7. M. Landoni
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  8. J. Strader
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  9. L. Chomiuk
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  10. C. C. Cheung
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  11. N. Masetti
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  12. E. Jiménez-Bailón
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  13. R. D’Abrusco
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  14. A. Paggi
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  15. D. Milisavljevic
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  16. F. La Franca
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  17. H. A. Smith
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  18. G. Tosti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. A. Peña-Herazo.

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Peña-Herazo, H.A., Marchesini, E.J., Álvarez Crespo, N. et al. Optical spectroscopic observations of gamma-ray blazar candidates. VII. Follow-up campaign in the southern hemisphere. Astrophys Space Sci 362, 228 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-017-3208-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-017-3208-7

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